the only true way to find out how good something is to test the cables yourself on your own home theatre setup to see which is the best for you..
anything above 24 guage you might aswell use a power cable...

i find most speakers that have 2-6 connections on them are designed to be run through a graphic eq before the amp..

most amps are designed to supply signal to the graphic eq then the graphic eq devides the sounds in thier various components so the right sounds get to the right speakers to give the correct sound at the right time, so you have perfect sound reproduction through all speakers..

Interesting topic. I was originally thinking of getting a brand name home theatre package, but have since decided I need to buy a seperate amp/receiver that can do what I want it to do and now I'm thinking I will have to buy speakers seperately, but not sure what I can get for $1000 with bookshelf type speakers.

It's been some time since i ventured into the dark depths of the forums... i think i lost a few years of my life in here somewhere...

anyhoo I also wanted to comment on the issue of the "Two really nice guys sold you two impressively large speakers at an amazing price from the back of their truck in a supermarket parking lot."

I work as a custom installer in Hamilton, Western Victoria and had a guy call me this week wanting me to come over and install his brand new system that he got real cheap. He picked up this full 7.1 theatre set from the Hungry Jacks carpark in Geelong.

Maybe they have been forced out of the supermarket carparks in the city and are heading West to satisfy all the bargain hunters in the country...

Sounds very dodgy to me buying home entertainment units in the Hungry Jacks carpark. Did they 'supersize' the speaker system? You sure it wasnt the hamburglar??

I have the biggest mistake anyone can make while shopping for home theatre gear and that is not listening to what the guy in the shop has to say, from a retailers side of things I want to point out that I know what I am talking about and I dont know how many times I have had people come in to get information and not listen to what I tell them. If you are gonna take the time to drive in and ask the question, shutup for five minutes and listen to the answer.

The second biggest mistake is spending nine hours with a guy in store who explains to you what you need demos the gear etc etc and then you walk out of the shop and go chop the price from store to store. Then you go back to the guy who spent the time with you and hand him over a card from some fella who gave you three seconds of his time to scribble a price on a card that is on cost or under cost.
I also want to point out that I will shop around to get a good price also but to check that I am not getting ripped off rather than scrounging every last cent I can.

The reason this is a mistake is because if you do chop the price out of something after a sales guy has spent the time to help you out then you will receive bugger all service if anything goes wrong. The reason you will get no real help is because the first time he spent the time to give you a hand you screwed him over so why would he bother the second time.

Pay a little more guys you will get the service. Many a time have I gone out after hours and setup gear for customers or fixed something up because the customer listened to what I had to say I gave them a good deal and in the end they are as happy as larry cause they know if they do have a problem I am there to help em out and they have the right gear for their situation. Second of all if they come back for something else I will give them a better deal the second time because they were such a champ the first time they came in.

Sorry, but I can't see how the customer is at fault if they manage to find a price that is cheaper than your first offer............. particularly if you are willing to match it when they come back to you!

Sorry, but I can't see how the customer is at fault if they manage to find a price that is cheaper than your first offer............. particularly if you are willing to match it when they come back to you!

Looks like you didn't read his post. If you want the cheapest price do as you suggest. If you want service do as the post before yours suggests. Simple.

in regard to retailers... i have to comment here.. most of tehsale sguys i speak to dont know what theyr etalking about..t h eother half are simply quoting sales blurbs and scripts.
When it comes down to the crunch, a consumer spending THIS much money should at least do some research before approaching a retailer for a demo.
Time is money and I for one hate tyre kickers.. i get it all the tme in my line of work and some people will do anything for a sale..
The difference however is that some people ARE willing to pay for service, the problem is that not many service proviers are worth the money.
Yes there are the very few who know their sh!t, but walk into any mass market retailer, and youll see many clueless punters asking irreverent questions and answered in a way where the sales guy glosses over pure hard facts.
Sadly as mentioned, not many are eposed to Good quality equipment, let alone have teh budget for good quality equipment, in turn, its nto worth the retailers time in either stocking or demoing this gear simply because there is next to no chance of a sale.

Go to a high end HT specialist store, and youll ntice the demographic is very different. Punters have SOME clue, sales guys know the ger and answer clearly...

just jumping back to bose for a sec, if you are looking for nice small speakers instead of looking at the bose try looking at the KEF KHT2005 speakers or the MORDAUNT SHORT: GENIE range, better built quality, that is immediately obvious and the sound is phenomenal. personally i prefer the Mordaunt Shorts, but the Kef come a close second.

1. You went for an all-inclusive surround sound speaker package from a big brand name manufacturer noted for electronics and TV sets. On the surface, it's not that irrational. If ________ (fill in Sony, Kenwood, any major electronics brand) knows how to build CD players, audio/video receivers or TV monitors, they must know how to design and build excellent loudspeakers, right? Not always. Good speaker design is so specialized, and requires such extensive acoustical research, measurement, and listening tests that the best speakers continue to come from companies with a long history of acoustical research and speaker design.

2. You bought speakers in a rush, without listening to them with your favourite recordings, and now you're disappointed because they sound boomy or harsh. Experienced listeners and professionals will tell you that making careful judgments on different speakers takes many hours of listening so don't be rushed. Visit several stores, taking the same group of recordings of music you know and like, for each test. If you have the option of auditioning the speakers in your own house, so much the better. That's the room where the speakers you buy will be placed, and there's no better place to listen to speakers than in the room you'll use them in. In any case, you'll likely keep them for years, so take your time and don't let sales staff pressure you.

3. You were knocked out by the deep bass from the subwoofer and didn't concentrate on the center channel and main left and right speakers. Sure, deep bass from a subwoofer is desirable, and it's impressive, but whether you watch movies or listen to lots of music, most of those midrange and high-frequency sounds--and all of the movie dialog--will come from the center channel and main left and right speakers. Listen critically to actors' voices. Do they sound "boxy" or unnatural and hollow? Are "ssss" sounds at the beginning of words exaggerated (sibilance) or sharp sounding? Do male actors sound nasal or if they had a head cold? Or are their voices "chesty" and too full? These are all speaker "colorations" -- unnatural changes in the tonality of speaking voices introduced by the loudspeaker, and they'll become tiresome and annoying after a short time. Voices should sound natural and dialogue should be easily understood.

4. You went for those attractive little cube speakers because they're so tiny and unobtrusive, but when things get loud with home theatre, the sound gets strained and off-putting. They may look cute and almost disappear into your room's decor, but those tiny satellite speakers can move only so much air. They're okay at quiet background levels but the little 2-inch cones inside get rattled when things start to rock and roll. Nor will a subwoofer fill in all the important upper bass and lower midrange sounds that the 2-inch cubes can't handle.

Any speaker with any claim to authentic high fidelity, even a fairly compact model, must divide the sound spectrum into at least two segments, the bass/midrange for the woofer, and the treble for the tweeter. A single cone just can't do it well in normal rooms. As the price spectrum climbs, the best speakers divide the spectrum into three parts--bass, midrange, and treble--and use multiple drivers to achieve very clean high-level high-quality sound.

5. You saved money by getting two compact speakers you thought would be just fine to fill your 25- x 20-foot cathedral-ceiling living room with high-level sound. But they sound strained and edgy when you turn up the volume. A speaker is a kind of electromagnetic air pump, and a modest single woofer and tweeter can't be expected to fill a big volume of space with wide-range sound at high listening levels. Too many shoppers expect a "bookshelf" speaker to produce deep, resonant bass. Unfortunately, the laws of physics dictate otherwise. Sure you can get listenable pleasant bass to about 50 or 40 Hz from a shoebox-size enclosure, but if you want the resonant, deep and satisfying sounds a big pop band or orchestra makes or the deep rumbling of movie soundtracks, you must get a subwoofer or floorstanding speakers--or both!

6. You set up your subwoofer at the side of the room and you're disappointed at the lack of deep, low bass. Room placement of any speaker is critical, and with subwoofers it becomes crucial. Even shifting the subwoofer (or where you sit) by a few feet can have a profound effect on the quantity and quality of low bass you'll hear. If the subwoofer is placed in the middle of a "standing wave," the deep bass may almost disappear. Moving the sub a few feet along the wall or towards a corner may entirely correct the problem.

Experiment with subwoofer locations! Every room produces "standing waves"--areas in the room where bass may seem too boomy or may almost be absent. Yes, subs are awkward, but you'll only have to position them once. And you can try moving the couch or chair as well, if that's easier.

7. You bought a receiver or amplifier advertised as having "200 watts total power output" and now it seems to be underpowered. Watts are comparatively inexpensive nowadays, but lots of amps and receivers are still advertised using the misleading "total power output" ruse, which sums the individual power for all five channels. That "200-watt" receiver may have only 40 watts per channel (40 x 5 = 200) which would be okay in a den or a dorm room (barely) but inadequate for good home theater in a living room.

Look for the receiver's power output per channel into 8 ohms at a specified distortion level over a rated frequency range, preferably with at least two channels driven. The power at a single frequency, usually 1,000 Hz (1 kHz) is often quoted in ads, but it can be misleading. A receiver or amplifier with rated power output of 80 to 100 watts per channel, from 20 Hz to 20 kHz, at 0.3% distortion (THD), with at least two channels driven, should be more than ample for all but the very largest rooms.

And don't forget dynamic headroom . . . don't even get me started on that one!

8. Two really nice guys sold you two impressively large speakers at an amazing price from the back of their truck in a supermarket parking lot. Somehow, the sound seems to be lacking something. . . Don't laugh. This scam has been going on for years and even normally intelligent otherwise sane folks fall for it. The speakers will often have a brand name that's sort of familiar, like "Sonic Research", something close to that of a familiar brand. But such speakers are terrible. Often, they have tweeters or woofers that aren't even connected. They're just for show.

The best speakers come from dedicated speaker designers who most often have been in business for 20 years or more. It takes that long to refine and develop really great loudspeakers.

9. You bought good speakers with excellent reputations and let your spousal unit or companion persuade you to put them out of sight inside an antique armoire or entertainment unit. Why buy really good speakers if you're going to place them inside shelving units or armoires? It's the old law of boundary effects. The more surfaces nearby or surrounding a speaker, the greater the likelihood of unpleasant colourations (see above). A speaker needs to operate more or less in free space. Smaller speakers sound their best on stands. If you must put them on a shelf, move the edge of the speaker so it protrudes from the shelf a bit to minimize boundary effects. Leave the armoire for electronics and storing CDs!

10. You went for the package speaker system from the famous-name manufacturer that runs the slick advertisements everywhere you look, and spends millions on promotion and little on research and design. The sound is a disappointment.Sad to say, certain companies use the cheapest possible cone drivers, and spend millions on slick advertising, diverting most of their profits not to research and development of better sounding speakers, but to getting manufacturing costs even lower. The systems ultimately disappoint; indeed, in some cases the basic design hasn't changed in 30 or 40 years. But the ads are very compelling.

Before you buy, check out detailed test reports in reputable audio/video magazines and on the internet. Read message boards for owner's comments on particular brands and models of speakers. Ask questions about the quality and type of the individual component parts. And don't be seduced by fancy-sounding hype in slick ads.

by Alan Lofft, Axiom Audio (reprinted with permission)

seing how popular this thread is just re-posting the contents found in the original link, jsut incase the link ever died for some reason !